Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

FIFA Manager 09 Screenshots

GUILDFORD, UK. – June, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that EA SPORTS™ FIFA MANAGER 09 is under development and will be released for PC in the UK in Autumn this year.

EA SPORTS FIFA MANAGER 09 gives football fans full control over the management of their clubs. Whether founding a club, becoming a national coach, or finally leading their favourite club to international glory, all options are open to players in the EA SPORTS football management simulation for PC. The game contains all areas of club management, from signing new players to training to extending stadiums.

A central element of EA SPORTS FIFA MANAGER 09 is the matchday itself. The 3D mode offers new improvements, particularly in the areas of graphics, sound and AI. The new, fully customizable user interface in 3D mode gives players direct access to substitutions, tactical changes, and statistics. The text mode has been completely revamped and now features a unique mixture of traditional live commentary and an Internet live ticker. Lots of exciting and informative tools create a high level of transparency and atmosphere.

Other major features of EA SPORTS FIFA MANAGER 09 are the line-up and tactics sections. Various new team and single-player options offer endless possibilities for every type of coach. New features include a youth transfer market and match prediction tool. Players can put teams together freely and even assign form and fitness values to single players. This allows matches in the real world of football to be simulated under very realistic conditions in order to predict the outcome of a match.

Featuring licensed league, club and player data from 33 countries, EA SPORTS FIFA MANAGER 09 has a comprehensive player data bank containing over 1,500 clubs and more than 25,000 players, with over 7,000 original player photos included in the game. Other players can be added by using the editor tool.

EA SPORTS FIFA MANAGER 09 will be released this autumn in six languages for the PC platform. The game has not yet been rated by PEGI or ESRB.

About Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS Freestyle™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.electronicarts.co.uk. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at www.electronicarts.co.uk/press.